


A Spark to Ignite

by Scrawlers



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 04:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17015625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scrawlers/pseuds/Scrawlers
Summary: Jounouchi caught Hirutani’s eye after school one day when they were thirteen. The problem—for Jounouchi, anyway—was that Hirutani never had been very keen on letting things go.





	A Spark to Ignite

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years ago, but in light of Tumblr being . . . Tumblr, I've decided to archive all my fics here, just in case.

Hirutani couldn’t say for sure, but if he had to take a guess, it was the large purple bruise forming over the other boy’s right eye that caught his attention.

Well, that, or the unruly mop of blond hair that stood out like a shock in the sunlight. It was stupid for anyone’s hair to be that shaggy, Hirutani thought, much less another  _boy’s_. But whatever it was, something compelled Hirutani to look over by the bike rack as he exited the school that afternoon, two eager boys flanking him on either side. They were supposed to be heading down to the underpass by the station to spend the afternoon, particularly since Hirutani knew that businessmen with KaibaCorp dealings often passed through there in the evenings, and picking their wallets was a quick and surefire way to get some good cash. But when he’d passed through the school doors something caught his eye, and when Hirutani looked over to the bike rack, he saw the kid.

There was nothing special about him. The boy was shorter than Hirutani, and scrawny. His hair was disgusting, and the bruise over his eye spoke of a badly lost fight. As Hirutani watched, the boy twisted a bike lock combination between his bony fingers. Even with his thick blond fringe in the way, and even given the distance between them, Hirutani could see that the kid was giving the bike lock combination a fierce enough glare to imply that it had offended him personally.

“Hirutani-san?” one of his boys asked, and the other hissed at the first to shut up, probably because he knew better than to interrupt when Hirutani was thinking. “Aren’t we going to—?”

“Shut up,” Hirutani said, and the boy wisely shut his mouth. They were the first Hirutani had recruited, but they wouldn’t be the last. He had plans, and somewhere around eight other interested candidates already. “Walk with me.”

Hirutani started toward the bike rack, and the two boys followed. The boy with the stupid hair stood up when he finally pulled the lock free from his bike’s tires, and he barely spared Hirutani a glance before he shoved the lock into his book bag.

That was his mistake.

“That’s a nice bike you’ve got there,” Hirutani said, once he was near enough so that he didn’t have to shout. It was a lie, and the look the boy gave him in response seemed to say that he knew it. The bike was about as bare-bones as the kid who owned it, with chipped green paint and tires with no tread. A basket, like the kind girls used to carry their purses, was attached to the handlebars. Hirutani decided it didn’t matter. He’d take it anyway. “Think I’d like to take it for a spin.”

“Get lost,” the boy said, and the boys behind Hirutani bristled, as if ready to back away in the event of a fight. One of them laughed. Neither would last long at this rate. Hirutani raised his eyebrows.

“You realize who you’re talking to, right?”

“You realize I don’t give a damn, right?” The boy kicked the kickstand of his bike back into place before he swung his leg over his bike seat. “Find your own bike. I’ve got things to do. Bye.”

Hirutani snapped his fingers, and the boys he’d recruited proved they had  _some_ promise when they understood the command for what it was and moved to stand in front of the boy’s bike. The boy scowled at them, but didn’t move his foot from his bike pedal.

“Get out of my way,” he said.

“Get off your bike,” Hirutani said. The boy glared at him, but didn’t move. Hirutani raised his eyebrows. “You’ll make this a lot easier for yourself if you do as I say and hand the bike over.”

“The only one making this stupid hard is you,” the boy said. In front of the bike, one of Hirutani’s underlings whispered something to the other. “Why do you even want my bike, anyway? It’s a piece of crap.”

“Doesn’t matter why I want it,” Hirutani said easily. “The fact is that I’m taking it. Get off the bike or you’re going to get hurt.”

The boy scoffed, and  _still_ did not move. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “Look, I don’t know who you are—”

“Hirutani,” Hirutani said, and if the boy heard him, he didn’t show it.

“—and I don’t care. But if you wanna fight, I can tell you right now that the only one that’s gonna get hurt is you.”

“You should watch your mouth when talking to Hirutani-san,” one of Hirutani’s underlings said. “He could—” The boy shut his mouth when Hirutani held up one hand.

“You think you could take me?” he asked the boy on the bike.

The boy on the bike snorted, and shook his head to shake his bangs from his eyes. It didn’t work; with how stupid long his hair was, they fell right back into place. “I fought someone at least twice your size last night and I’m still standing, aren’t I?” he asked, his voice full of bravado. “You’re nothing.”

Hirutani’s boys hissed in a sound that was much closer to fear than anger, and both of them took steps back. Hirutani, on the other hand, considered the kid before him. The kid was cocky, and on some level, being that cocky when you clearly had nothing to back it up was impressive. The kid’s problem was that he was being cocky to  _Hirutani_ , and in front of an entire after school audience, no less. Hirutani didn’t like being talked back to on the regular, but by a mouthy little half-pint like this one?

Hirutani slammed his fist into the boy’s face before the kid had a chance to react, his knuckles smashing against the still forming bruise. The kid was thrown from the bike, which toppled over with him, and when he hit the ground he swore a blue streak that Hirutani had to admit was just as impressive as his reckless bravado. Still, being impressive wouldn’t save him.

“Understand yet?” Hirutani asked, as the kid twisted himself free of his fallen bike. Hirutani’s underlings laughed, and one of them whooped a cheer. “If so, run home to Mommy. I’m sure she’ll—”

The kid threw himself at Hirutani from a half crouch. He’d leaped over his fallen bike to throw his entire body weight into Hirutani’s chest, and he’d moved quickly enough so that Hirutani hadn’t been able to anticipate the attack. The result was that Hirutani stumbled backward just enough for something to catch around his shoe, which sent both of them tumbling to the ground. Instinctively, Hirutani braced one arm against the kid’s throat while his other hand grasped at the kid’s arm, and he used those holds to throw the kid off him. The kid hit the dirt but immediately spun back around, one fist raised, and Hirutani raised his own hand to block the punch, his hand easily closing around the kid’s fist. He barely had time to smirk at the kid’s wasted effort before the kid’s knee slammed into his jaw with enough force to cut Hirutani’s lip against his own teeth, and for a brief moment white hot rage stole out over the adrenaline that came from the start of a fight.

As the kid pulled back to punch Hirutani in the face, Hirutani grabbed the kid’s wrists and flipped him, throwing him clear across the school yard. The kid landed flat on his back, but he was already scrambling to his feet as Hirutani stood up, and when Hirutani ran at him the kid ducked under Hirutani’s swing. Hirutani spun in time to avoid another punch, and swung his own fist with enough speed to slam his knuckles against the side of the kid’s head. Once again the kid was knocked to the dirt, but he managed to roll out of the way of Hirutani’s first kick, though as he shifted into a crouch Hirtuani kicked him hard enough in the chest to throw him back to the ground again.

“Had enough yet?” Hirutani asked, and he swiped his hand across his lip. Blood smeared across the back of his hand, and the rage that he’d been momentarily distracted from in the scuffle surged back to the surface. He was bleeding. Hirutani was  _bleeding._ This scrawny ass  _twerp_ had made Hirutani  _bleed_ and now Hirutani was going to make him  _pay_.

“You kidding?” the kid asked. He was breathing hard, either from exertion or the foot Hirutani had slammed into his ribs, but his lips were tilted into a grin, his eyes bright. “This is  _fun_.”

Hirutani forced a laugh, more for his boys and the other students that had milled around to watch than anything else. “That so?” he asked, and the boy nodded. Hirutani gave him only a second before he rushed him, but this time the kid seemed ready.

The kid dodged to the side in a feint not unlike the one Hirutani had used before, and when Hirutani turned to face him, he was met with a solid punch to his gut. It was enough to wind him; he stumbled back, hunched over his throbbing stomach, and his swear left his lips on a gasp of air. The kid pressed his advantage; he threw himself forward and slammed his fist into Hirutani’s right eye, and as Hirutani pulled back from that assault, the kid tackled him with enough force to send them both careening into the dirt again. The kid had Hirutani pinned between him, and he raised another fist to slam it back into Hirutani’s face, but Hirutani raised his arm to block the strike and swung his other hand around to grab the kid by his throat—

“Enough!  _Enough_!”

Hirutani ignored the shouts. He wrapped his fingers around the kid’s throat, but instead of throwing him off, this time he flipped them. The kid flailed and thrashed beneath him, but Hirutani squeezed his throat tighter; his right eye throbbed as he glared at the kid, and he could still taste blood in his mouth.

“You—” he started to say, but sudden hands gripped the back of Hirutani’s school jacket and pulled him off. The kid sputtered and gasped for air, his hands immediately massaging his throat as he pushed himself into a seated position, helped seconds later by one of the school teachers.

“I said  _enough_!” the vice principal said, and he shook Hirutani as if to emphasize the point. Disgust roiled through Hirutani as he registered that the vice principal was still holding his shoulders, and Hirutani shook him off. “Both of you, my office.  _Now_.”

“But it’s after school!” the kid said, and the indignation in his voice almost made his words sound like a whine. The vice principal glared at him.

“You didn’t seem to care about that when you decided to fight out here on school property,” the vice principal said, and in a gesture that was so sickeningly cliché it was almost funny, he pointed toward the school. “Get your ass to my office to my office  _now_ , you little hooligan. You too, Hirutani.”

The kid glared at the vice principal with more heat than Hirutani would have expected from someone like him, but turned and stalked back toward the school building. Hirutani didn’t particularly feel like following; he had plans for the underpass, and he didn’t make it a habit of listening to people like middle school vice principals when he knew that no punishment given to him would stick anyway, given who his dad was.

But he could still taste blood in his mouth. He smeared it against the back of his teeth with his tongue. With everyone else he’d ever fought in his life, not one of them had managed to draw blood before, and as much as he hated when people talked back to and treated him like he was  _nothing_ , Hirutani’s previous rage had given way to curiosity.

So he nodded at the vice principal, and started back toward the school after the kid.

**\- - -**

In his office, the vice principal rattled on about school rules and proper behavior, about this or that and how parents would have to be called next time, and they were lucky not to be suspended this time. Hirutani tuned him out after the first thirty seconds, and settled instead for leaning casually in his chair and observing the kid. The kid glared from beneath his blond fringe at the vice principal, and Hirutani had to hand it to him: he was doing a good job of looking pissed off. But Hirutani noticed how the kid’s jaw clenched when the vice principal mentioned suspension, how he sat up a little straighter, and when the vice principal said something about behaving themselves before they were dismissed, the kid gave a curt nod before he stood up from his chair roughly enough to shove it back a bit. For all that he acted like he was pissed off and didn’t care, it was obvious that talk of suspension struck a chord with him— _bothered_ him—and that gave him an exploitable opening. Hirutani grinned as he followed the kid out of the vice principal’s office.

“You’re lucky,” Hirutani said, when they reached the hallway. Anger bubbled in Hirutani as his jaw throbbed. It hurt to talk. The scrappy little fucker had done a number on it. The kid looked back at him with raised eyebrows, and so Hirutani said, “If it wasn’t me in there with you, you’d probably be suspended right now.”

The kid shoved his hands in his pockets and faced straight ahead again. “Like I give a shit,” he said. “School sucks anyway. Don’t know why I even bother.” He kicked one of the lockers as they reached the corner, and Hirutani laughed as they rounded it.

“School is a pain in the ass,” he said. “They don’t teach us anything here we could actually  _use_ , things we actually  _need_. But it still has its uses.”

“Sure,” the kid said, but it sounded more like a dismissal than an agreement. Hirutani ran his tongue along his teeth again, tasting blood, and grabbed the kid’s shoulder to pull him to a stop. The kid swung one arm out to knock Hirutani’s hand off. “Keep your hands off me,” he snapped.

“Sure,” Hirutani said, echoing the kid from before, and the kid frowned, as if unsure what to make of it. Good. “Just wanted to properly introduce myself. The name’s Hirutani.”

“Yeah, I heard before,” the kid said.

Hirutani shoved his hands into his pockets in an attempt to bite back the urge to cold clock the little asshole again. “And yours is?” he prompted.

The kid glared at him for a second more, but it wasn’t the same sullen, angry look he’d given the vice principal before. This one was scrutinizing—appraising. “Jounouchi,” the kid said after a moment. After a beat he added, “Happy now?”

Jounouchi. Something clicked into place in Hirutani’s mind. He knew that name—had heard it passed around in idle gossip from his classmates during lunch hour. This kid was in the next class over from him, if Hirutani wasn’t mistaken. Same grade—same age, despite the apparent lack of a growth spurt. Class 2-B. If Hirutani remembered his classmates’ gossip well enough, this really wasn’t Jounouchi’s first fight. The buzz was quiet, but he’d been making a name for himself all the same, and here he had saved Hirutani the trouble of seeking him out. Hirutani smiled around the ache in his jaw.

“You bet,” he said, and Jounouchi gave him a bemused look. Hirutani clapped a hand against Jounouchi’s back, though he pulled it away quickly enough when Jounouchi jerked under his touch, and started down the hallway again. Jounouchi followed, though Hirutani noted that he made it a point to keep an arm’s length between them as they walked.

“So,” Hirutani said, as they neared the end of the hall and the front doors to the school, “you really haven’t heard of me?”

“Should I have?” Jounouchi asked. He quickened his pace to reach the doors before Hirutani did, and shoved them open. It was clear that he wanted to get away from Hirutani as quickly as possible, and as he caught the door so that it wouldn’t hit him when it swung back his way, Hirutani told himself that this was more out of fear than annoyance.

“Surprised you haven’t,” Hirutani said, and he kept his voice casual. By now, the school yard was empty aside from the two of them, and he followed Jounouchi as Jounouchi started back toward the bike rack. Hirutani ignored the thread of irritation that shot through him when he noticed that his boys hadn’t waited. “Most have by now, even if I haven’t approached them yet. You see, I’ve got—” Hirutani cut himself off as Jounouchi pulled to an abrupt stop in front of him, and he scowled at the back of Jounouchi’s head. “Are you even listening?” he demanded. “What did you—?”

“Where’s my bike,” Jounouchi said, and Hirutani followed his gaze to the bike rack to see that the shabby green bike was nowhere in sight. The annoyance he’d felt toward his new recruits before suddenly vanished, replaced instead by a wide grin. They’d left, and that was wrong of them, but he could only assume that they’d made themselves useful when they did. He looked back in time to see Jounouchi wheel to face him with a furious glare; Jounouchi’s fingers curled into fists. “Dude, where the hell is my bike?!”

“How should I know?” Hirutani asked, and Jounouchi bared his teeth in a wordless snarl. “I was in there with you the whole time. Or did I hit you hard enough to give you a concussion and make you forget?”

“You had groupies,” Jounouchi said, and Hirutani sputtered a laugh at the idea of his underlings being referred to as  _groupies_. It wasn’t necessarily wrong, he supposed, but by the time he was through his outfit would be so much more than that. “They took my bike when we went in there, don’t try to tell me they didn’t. Where is it?”

“Do you have a reason I should tell you?” Hirutani asked, and Jounouchi’s eyes looked practically black they were so dark with rage. Hirutani laughed. “Let’s say my boys did take your bike. What are you going to do about it? What plan do you have to get it back? What are you willing to do for that rusted piece of shit?”

“Beat the shit out of every single one of you, for starters,” Jounouchi said.

Hirutani snorted, and he patted his hands against the pockets of his school pants. “That worked out well for you before,” he said. He didn’t have any cigarettes on him, of course, because he knew better than to bring them to school, but the urge to smoke compelled him to check anyway.

“Your jaw looks pretty swollen, so yeah, I’d say it did,” Jounouchi said, and Hirutani’s jaw throbbed again as if to prove Jounouchi’s point. Hirutani glared at him. That whole fight, their near suspension, and Jounouchi was still on the same peg he’d started on.

“Fine,” Hirutani said after a moment. “I’d say you’re right. Neither one of us won that fight. It was a tie. We’re—” He stopped short, unable to finish the sentence, the next word stuck on the back of his teeth worse than the blood had been before. But Jounouchi threw his shoulders back, his chin tilted up, and while there was still no  _deference_ there, Hirutani could still see enough to recognize that there was  _respect_.

“Equals,” Jounouchi said. He didn’t seem to have the same problem Hirutani did, but then, he had no reason to. 

“Yeah,” Hirutani agreed, for now, to get what he wanted. There was no one around to witness him agreeing to it, anyway, and it wouldn’t last long enough for anyone to catch wind of it. The respect in Jounouchi’s eyes was already a good start. “But our fight ending in a draw won’t get your bike back, and since our fight ended in a draw before, what do you say your odds are in a brawl against me  _and_ my boys?”

“Your ‘boys’ aren’t here,” Jounouchi said.

“No,” Hirutani agreed, “but I’d say we’d probably just draw again if you decided to go again. That, or you’ll get suspended for real this time.” Hirutani grinned as Jounouchi hesitated. “So what now, Jounouchi? What’s your plan? Another brawl?”

Jounouchi considered him for a moment before some of the tension melted from his shoulders. He crossed his arms across his chest. “What else have you got in mind?” he demanded.

Seven words had never sounded so beautiful. Hirutani grinned broadly as he looked Jounouchi up and down—as he took in the wiry muscles he hadn’t noticed before in that scrawny, scrappy frame—and turned to start back across the schoolyard. “Follow me,” he said. “I think we can get your bike back, so long as you’re willing to meet me halfway.”


End file.
